Last week Aaron spent the morning with Grandma. She took him with her to run some errands and into the Mall where he rode on several toy vehicles. He was so excited! He had so much to tell us about when he got home. These photos of him are so sweet!
Aaron spent the day with Grandma, while I took Donovan for allergy testing...
After 2 years of a series of lingering colds every fall (Aug - Oct) and spring (April - June), often resulting in sinus infections taking multiple rounds of antibiotics to clear up, we realized what was most likely causing Donovan these symptoms was likely allergies, and not colds. In fact, how we finally realized this was that when we returned from China in late April, and Donovan was on another round of antibiotics for a sinus infection that had been going on for 4 weeks, suddenly the temperatures dropped and we got a snowstorm, and Donovan's symptoms disappeared -and then reappeared a week later when spring weather returned. Donovan was started on Zyrtec and Flonase and we saw quick improvement in his symptoms. Our pediatrician wanted to refer Donovan for allergy testing then, but we were afraid that removing him from the Zyrtec and Flonase allergy meds. for a week required before the allergy testing would result in yet another sinus infection. So, our pediatrician agreed that if we could keep the symptoms at bay with the Zyrtec/Flonase, then we could hold off on allergy testing until late fall/early winter.
And so, last week, I took Donovan for the allergy testing. We were simply trying to discover which things he is allergic too and which months we would really need to treat him with allergy meds (rather than medicating from spring to first frost of winter...). The allergist we chose was absolutely wonderful. In fact, when I taught one summer in a private preschool's summer program, his oldest son was in my class, and his youngest son is adopted from Korea, and his wife is an artist, whose work we have several of in our home.
Donovan did great! First the nurse "wrote" on his back and then she "scratched" it. Donovan didn't even flinch when she "scratched" him with the needles 20 times for the various possible allergens. Within moments his back began to itch and turn red in many locations. The nurse told Donovan not to touch his back (btw, he complied so much with this that, that afternoon when it was time to put pjs on for nap, he asked if it was okay to then touch his back.) Donovan and I spent about 15 minutes playing Go Fish and Memory. The doctor came in, looked at Donovan's back, and announced, "Well it looks like we are dealing with some allergies here." The results, as expected, indicated allergies to pollen (April - June) and ragweed (Aug-late Sept) - Well, at least we can take July off from allergy meds :) AND, what we were not expecting...an indoor allergy to dust mites. Donovan did great through the whole thing, and was excited about his sticker, and then lunch out with mom.
The outdoor allergies are certainly not a big deal, we will just use the Zyrtec and Flonase as recommended by the doctors, April - June and then again August and September. The dust mite allergy is a bit more involved. We've been ordering a lot of items and have some changes to make. Just received our steamer and ionic air cleaner with permanent Hepa filter for his bedroom, special dust mite covers for his mattress and his pillow (and Aaron's, and ours too as they both often climb into our bed in the early am), special additive for laundering his bedding (weekly). His room will need to be steamed weekly. No more stuffed animals, except one special panda and one special koala bear which will be steamed regularly and laundered weekly. We are NOT removing carpeting. Our allergist said if we vaccuum his bedroom 1-2 times a week (including moving all furniture and vaccuuming where it was) and steam it regularly (weekly I guess), we should be okay.
I am so glad we opted to have the allergy testing done. While the seasonal stuff we had already figured out, the dust mites allergy was unexpected. Well, now we are armed with our steamer, and ready to eliminate dust mites on a regular basis :)
